Senior Republicans fear a 'rattled' Trump could flop first Harris debate | Julia Manchester

we know that the economy tends to be a weak spot for Democrats so this is something she really needs to drill into because she's going to be pressed by former president Trump who has put forth this Pro business platform now for Trump it's sort of the opposite in that he needs to work on not falling into the personal attacks that he somehow is always trying to um you know launch on Harris a lot of Republicans wish he would stick with the policy and be more disciplined but it's really unclear that he's going to be able to do that because we've seen that over the past couple of weeks since Harris has really gained momentum became the Democratic nominee he has been rattled by this now Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump will battle each other next week in their first televised debates and high States Clash that could give the winner an advantage in the final Sprint to election day for Harris the square off in Philadelphia on Tuesday is an opportunity to lay out her priorities and show her metal against a rival who's belittled her intelligence and subjected her to racist and sexist attacks Trump will get a chance to try and blunt some of Harris's momentum in a race that has tightened considerably since she became the Democratic nominee in July so given the last debate signaled the end of President Biden what can we expect from this one Julia Manchester is a reporter and host at the hill in Washington Julia thank you so much for joining us hi thank you for having me what can we expect from this debate because one of the uh fascinating things that we've seen uh in the runup to it is the suggestion from Donald Trump that he doesn't need to to prep he's got Pol So-Cal policy time instead I think it's called Uh but Harris is in scon in Pittsburgh you know trying to get a handle on the debates the questions ahead of this debate do you think they're both taking it as seriously as one another well first of all I think the most interesting part going into this debate is that these two people have actually never met each other in fact the only other time they've been in the same room with each other was during the State of the Union when President Trump was president and KLA Harris was the senator so that creates an interest Dynamic but in terms of you know how they're prepping look for KLA Harris this is really about her digging in on those policy stances she's gotten some criticism for being too vague when it comes to some of her policy stances particularly on the economy we know that the economy tends to be a weak spot for Democrats so this is something she really needs to drill into because she's going to be pressed by former president Trump who has put forth this Pro bus platform now for Trump it's sort of the opposite in that he needs to work on not falling into the personal attacks that he somehow is always trying to um you know launch on Harris a lot of Republicans wish he would stick with the policy and be more disciplined but it's really unclear that he's going to be able to do that because we've seen that over the past couple of weeks since Harris has really gained no momentum became the Democratic nominee he has been rattled by this and I mean can you just give us a sense of there's this new poll the time Sienna poll that shows you know Trump one point ahead but are we to put much uh stool in this suggestion that perhaps CA Harris had a great summer but actually things are looking not particularly uh fantastic for her now or indeed that actually in this poll 28% said they just needed to know more about her whereas a far fewer number about 9% said they needed to know more about Trump but the stakes higher for her in some ways in this debate yes because you you and I think you hit the nail on the head right there a lot of Americans even though she is the vice president they still don't know a ton about her as much as they know about Donald Trump remember even prior to Donald Trump being president he was this figure who was seen as you know this celebrity this businessman the American people have been familiar with him for decades really kamla Harris even though she's been a major figure in politics particularly in California for decades nationally people are still getting to know her the Trump campaign is still trying to Define her for example so she has um you know I think the stakes are higher in that way but in terms of you know where the polls stand look she did have a good summer but at the end of the day this is going to be a razor tight election or at least that's what it's proving to be and I think the Harris campaign you see Harris do it herself they are trying to lower expectations she talks about how she's the underdog for example so I think that um you know at the end of the day both campaigns realize this is going to be close there is no clear person who is you know ahead at this point I mean we know that Harris has a lot of momentum but as we get closer to election day as we see these debates as we see these candidates on the campaign Trail it's going to get closer and just I think on that point there's this new abortion ad from Harris isn't there can you tell us a bit about whether or not we're expecting that issue to play in the debate on Tuesday oh definitely I mean this is an issue that Democrats have repeatedly hammered Republicans on for the past two years ever since R versus Wade which was the Supreme Court decision that legalize abortion at the federal level since that was overturned Democrats have been very successful at that you know in 2022 we had the midterm election um and Republicans were expected to do quite well in that election due to the um the state of the economy under the Biden Harris Administration it wasn't you know as good as you know expected but um we saw Democrats really shift that National conversation to this issue of abortion and they've been successful with campaigning on that so this is something they're going to continue to do because Republicans including Trump himself they haven't been able to come up with the best response to the abortion attacks it' be fascinating to watch Julia maner thank you so much for joining us reporter and host at the hill in Washington e e e e